Christmas Cookies
by Mizaya
Summary: Tohru decides to make Christmas cookies...with some unexpected help. Kyo x Tohru fluff.


Disclaimer: I don't own Fruits Basket, so please don't sue me.

A/N: It's been a long time since I wrote anything for Furuba. Christmas inspired me to do this fluffy little ficlet. Pure Kyoru sap.

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Christmas Cookies

By: Mizaya

Tohru hurried across the freshly cleaned kitchen floor at the persistent chiming of the timer. Pulling the last tray half out of the oven, Tohru squinted at the piping hot cookies to see if they were done.

"Why are you staring like that?"

Kyo's voice behind her made her jump so much she almost fell face first into the cookies. Cheeks noticeably hot, she smiled and straightened, taking the tray out with her yellow oven mitt in the process.

"Ah, Kyo-kun, you scared me!" she told him with a nervous smile. "I was trying to tell if the sugar cookies were ready yet."

"Sugar cookies?" Kyo said quizzically and stared at the tray himself. "What are those for?"

Beaming at him, Tohru began sliding the cookies onto the cooling rack with her spatula to join their brethren. "They're and American cookie, for Christmas. Uo-chan let me borrow the recipe."

At this Kyo crossed his arms and quirked an eyebrow. "They're probably poisonous if the Yankee told you to make them. I've seen what she fixes herself for lunch." He made a sound of disgust and backed away from the tray as if expecting it to suddenly be full of some of the concoctions Arisa brought to school.

Slightly worried that Kyo wouldn't be happy with what she made, Tohru looked at the recipe, still sitting out on the counter. "It doesn't look like strange ingredients," she offered hesitantly. "I've cooked with all these things before."

A sharp yet painless bop on her head made her look up at Kyo in embarrassment. "Quit worrying so much," he scolded half-heartedly. "They look fine...or something. I'll even eat one to make sure they're safe." Picking up a wreath-shaped cookie, he got it halfway to his mouth before Tohru grabbed his arm feebly.

"You're supposed to put frosting on them first," she said quickly at his shocked expression. She pointed to the bottom of the recipe, where there were simple instructions for making a glaze to decorate with. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to startle you."

Kyo sputtered an awkward laugh and tossed the unadorned cookie back onto the rack. "Don't you think I knew that? Geez." At Tohru's flinch of shame he added, "And quit being sorry all the time, would you? You think I scare that easily? A trained martial artist doesn't get 'startled.'" His words were firm, but Tohru wondered at the twinge of pink the bloomed on them as he spoke.

"I'm sorry," Tohru said. Then she covered her mouth, realizing when Kyo rolled his eyes that she had just done what he told her not to do.

"So let's make this frosting stuff, then," he said, changing the subject before she could make a bigger fool of herself by apologizing more.

Tohru was pleased to have Kyo's help. He was very talented in the kitchen even if he wouldn't admit it, and he thought to separate the frosting into separate dishes so they could stir in food coloring for all different colors before putting them in wax paper pastry bags. In a few minutes time they were all set up to ice the cooled cookies at the dining room table.

So, when Kyo made to leave the room after he set down the last few frosting colors, Tohru was a bit upset and surprised. "Do you want to help me decorate?" she asked tentatively as his hand was upon the door.

He paused in his actions. "I don't know how to do that girly kind of stuff," he mumbled, studying his feet and not making eye contact at all.

"Oh." Tohru hoped that her sudden disappointment wasn't apparent in her voice. She had been having so much fun just a few minutes ago. "Thank you very much for helping with the frosting, Kyo-kun. Should I bring a cookie to your room when they're done?"

Instead of a direct answer, Kyo made some unintelligible grumbling under his breath as if arguing with himself, then turned to face her and muttered something that sounded oddly like "screw it" and sat down across from her. Tohru saw that his cheeks were definitely pink now. She hoped she hadn't upset him. "It's ok if you don't want -"

"Don't try to talk me out of it now," he said harshly, then rushed on in a less heated tone. "So what am I supposed to put on these anyway?" He had picked up that same cookie and was grimacing at it.

"Ah, I think that one is a wreath. This one must be a –" she paused and looked at one that seemed to be a sock. She hadn't really paid attention to what they were as she was cutting them out so much if there was an equal number of each design, so that none of the designs felt left out.

"-a stocking," Kyo finished for her. "Yeah, and this is a candy cane, bell, holly, and this is a...." Now he was stumped.

Tohru looked at the cookie he was pointing at. It was sort of rectangular, with a bumpy thing on one side. "Hmmm," she thought out loud, "maybe it's a...nametag?"

"A nametag? Made out of a cookie?"

Tohru flushed. "I think sometimes you put names on these kinds of cookies. That way everyone has one."

After a moment of thought, Kyo snorted. "Why couldn't you just put names on the cookies that are shaped like something already? The person who made that cookie cutter must be dumber than you. What's that lump on it for, anyway?"

He snatched up one of the cookies and the pouch of red frosting, which had turned out rather pink. Tohru watched as he crookedly wrote her name in English letters across it, filling in the lumpy part with a big blob of frosting. "There," he announced proudly and handed it to her.

"Thank you, Kyo-kun," she said sincerely, admiring the cookie. "No one has ever made me a nametag cookie before! I'll always cherish it."

"How about you eat it? If you try to save it you'll probably attract a horde of that damn rat's friends to the house." There was definite scorn in the last, but Tohru knew it wasn't for her. She so desperately hoped that Kyo and Yuki could get along someday.

"I'm sorry. You're right, I should eat it. I'll just save it a few days so I can enjoy it first." A thought struck her. "Maybe we should decorate one for everyone. I think there are enough nametags."

Kyo looked from her to the cookies and back again. "How about you do that and I'll make the other ones? I've got bad handwriting."

Deciding not to argue that she thought he had nice handwriting, Tohru started decorating the nametags with everyone's names, choosing the colors based on the person. Hatori's was green, Momiji's yellow, and Kyo's orange. She had to improvise blue for black, but all in all they turned out well. Taking Kyo's lead, she decorated the lumpy part of the cookie, making sure it went across the top, almost like an awning. Meanwhile, Kyo decorated the stockings and candy canes and all the rest. Even though he had five times more cookies to decorate, he was almost done by the time Tohru finished, and he had done a perfect job. Tohru helped him with the last few and then they sat back to marvel at their handiwork.

"I'll go get plates to put them on," Tohru announced. She rose and went to the kitchen to grab two platters that would fit all the cookies. Then she put all the nametags, candy canes, and bells on one, the wreaths, stockings, and holly on the other. Then she got up to take them all back to the kitchen for safekeeping. The way tables and doors broke around the house, they weren't safe in the dining room.

Before she took three steps, Kyo was grabbing the second tray from her. "Let me take that one. You're such a klutz you shouldn't carry more than one at a time."

Tohru smiled at him warmly. He always made her smile when he said things like that. She knew he wasn't being hurtful; he just looked out for her. It was comforting to know someone was making sure she didn't do anything typically Tohru, like drop the plate of freshly decorated cookies.

They set the plates down and Tohru turned to go collect the frosting packets, still on the table, but Kyo halted her with his arm. He was staring in bewilderment at the cookie cutters, on the counter next to his platter and the recipe.

"Is something wrong, Kyo-kun?"

"No, I think I just figured out what that one was supposed to be."

Tohru was confused. What that one was supposed to be? What one?

Kyo apparently understood her unasked question. "Look at the cookie cutter," he said, holding one in front of her eyes.

Tohru stared for a second before seeing that it was the one that made the nametags. Then she turned bright red, embarrassed that she hadn't paid more attention when she was cutting out the cookies. That shape, like all of them, had been a bit distorted in the oven as the cookies spread a bit. It wasn't a nametag at all. It was a present. "Oh." Her voice was quiet.

"You really are a moron!" Kyo's hand made to smack her lightly on the forehead as usual, but instead he brushed her cheek with a knuckle, making her feel how hot her face was compared to his cold hands. A half smile crept across his face. "Guess I was a big moron this time, too, though." At that he picked up the cookie with her name on it and handed it to her again. "Well now I don't have to get you a real present. Merry Christmas."

Tohru looked down at the cookie in her hands. She had promised to eat it, but she had no idea how she would ever bring herself to. It occurred to her to give Kyo his in the same way, so she picked up his cookie and handed it to him. "Merry Christmas to you, too, Kyo-kun," she said in a weak voice, smiling through her nervousness. Where the nervousness had come from, she had no idea. "Thank you for all your help today."

Now Kyo was examining his cookie. She had made his extra special. On the bump, which she now knew to be the bow of the present, she had frosted a smiling cat head.

"Yeah, no problem. Thanks." Kyo's words were hurried, and quite unexpectedly he brushed past her and left the room, still clutching his cookie. Tohru was left alone, blushing and confused.

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A few weeks after Christmas, when the New Years celebration had finally ended and Tohru had returned to her daily activities of laundry and cooking and cleaning, she stumbled across something that made her blush harder than before. She was putting Kyo's clothes away in his room when she happened upon the open drawer of his desk. Inside was a very familiar and stale looking cookie with frosting old and cracked. It was the one Tohru had made for him when they still thought the present-shape was a name tag.

Tohru hurried out of Kyo's room (she knew he wouldn't want her, or anyone, to see) and into her own, where she opened her desk drawer. The cookie he had made her was in there, next to a pink paper flower and secured in plastic wrap so she wouldn't attract any vermin like Kyo had warned against. She couldn't bring herself to eat the cookie he had made her, and she wondered if he couldn't either.

Maybe, just maybe, the feelings she had around Kyo did mean something. Maybe they were even returned.

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A/N: Thank you for reading! I hope you enjoyed it and will take the time to review. Happy Holidays!


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